


cardigan

by mellowasinyellow



Series: folklore [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M, just some heavy kissing, nothing to get your knickers in a twist about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28796283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mellowasinyellow/pseuds/mellowasinyellow
Summary: Peeta doesn't mean to make a move when she's at her most vulnerable.  He just doesn't want her to be miserable alone.  High School AU.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Series: folklore [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2098236
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	cardigan

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so I love the album folklore but Taylor Swift. Here is another thing I think about a lot when I listen to it.

“Hey,” heavy footsteps join me on the balcony, but I stay resolutely curled in a ball on one of the patio chairs. I hear one of the chairs pulled out and the voice flop into it. “You know people are looking for you inside.” 

I press my eyes into my forearm. I desperately want to not care who is looking for me. I want to forget all of them. 

“Gale left,” the voice says and pauses as if expecting a reaction. I refuse to give one, but my ears do prick hoping this stranger might have news of Gale’s imminent death. “I’m sorry that happened to you Katniss. You deserve much better than that.” It’s only then that I start to wonder who this kind stranger is. The only person to have come after me, or at least the only one to have found me, after the most humiliating night of my life. “I wouldn’t say no to helping toilet paper his house if you want to.” 

I wipe my eyes furiously within my cocoon, willing the redness to go before I raise my head to see Peeta Mellark’s kind smile. His elbows are resting on his knees and his head is a lot closer to mine than I was expecting. “His mom is my mom’s friend,” I say dismissing the TP’ing idea, “But if you have any other suggestions I’m listening.” 

“We could get his locker?” Peeta’s smile grows a little as I engage in the conversation. “Maybe pour some honey in?” 

“Eww!” I grimace. “Not a bad idea.” My head is filled with a lot of rage and truly horrendous ways of getting back at Gale Hawthorne, but I somehow can’t imagine Peeta and his honey prank being quite ready to hear them. 

“Or you could just have a really fun night and put it all over Instagram in the morning?” Peeta suggests. “Show him what he missed.” He’s trying to lift my spirits, but I don’t know why. We don’t talk much. We run in some of the same circles, we’re both sophomores, and we have some classes together, but we have never really spoken alone before. 

“Honestly, I just want to go home and go to bed.” 

“I can give you a ride,” he offers instantly. 

“Uh… thanks,” I say, “but I can’t go. I was supposed to…” I huff out a breath. It all seems so stupid now and I hate myself for every decision I had made in the past year. Peeta’s blue eyes shine and look at me like I’m all he wants to listen to. “I told my mom I would sleepover with Madge so she’s not expecting me back.” In truth, I had told my mom I was sleeping at Madge’s so I could actually sneak over to Gale’s but Peeta doesn’t need to know that. Everyone already knows more than enough about my sex life. 

“So I guess we will just have to hang out here,” he grins. 

“Don’t you want to go back to the party?” 

“The company is much better up here,” his eyes are such an intense blue and that smile just never seems to falter or seem forced. 

“Well, you could at least smuggle us some beer,” I suggest. 

Peeta returns with two bottles of beer but no way to open them. We amuse ourselves for quite some time using the edge of Madge’s parents patio table, Peeta’s car keys, and then the balcony railings until Peeta finally hits it just right and spills a considerable amount over his leg. 

“Damn,” he curses and jumps back. I laugh loudly and he turns to me with an awestruck smile. “Want me to get yours?” 

“Sure,” I hold it out because I haven’t gotten anywhere in my attempts yet. He gives me his and returns to the sideways tactic he has perfected on the balcony railing. It pops off after a minute or so. 

“I think I’m getting better,” he jokes. “I’ll have reinvented the bottle opener in no time.” 

“I don’t think it needed reinventing.”

We scoot to the edge or the balcony and dangle our legs down between the railings as we drink our beers. 

“You know my dad makes his own,” Peeta tells me a few sips in. 

“Bottle openers?” I quirk an eyebrow at him. 

“No, beer. He has a little brewing system in the basement. My mom hates it but it means there’s always plenty in the house.” 

“Is it any good?” 

“Better than this stuff,” he nods. 

“Maybe I can try it sometime,” I say it casually but the reaction it elicits in Peeta is anything but. 

“Would- would you like to?” He stammers, a flush in his cheeks. 

“Sure, would your dad mind?” 

“It’s a bit of an open secret,” Peeta explains. “I think he would be mad if I just marched in and took some but I learnt a lot from my brothers while they were growing up and they are both legal now anyway so if he notices any is missing he probably just blames them. The key is that my parents run a bakery so they go to bed real early.” 

I laugh because that does sound ideal. “So, I’ll just sneak over in the dead of night sometime?” 

His blush deepens a little, “well it is best enjoyed when they go to visit my brother in Atlanta.” 

I start to feel that pleasant buzz from the beer as I empty the bottle, but the night’s chill is beginning to set in and I’m starting to wonder if we should head inside. Like he has read my mind Peeta asks, “Did you bring a jacket with you?” 

“I left it in Gale’s car,” I sigh getting to my feet. “Maybe we should go in?” 

Inside the party seems to have died down a bit. There is still a bit of commotion coming from the kitchen but it sounds like most of the crowd that watched my humiliation have gone home. No doubt to tweet about it. 

Peeta disappears downstairs again and this time returns with a bottle of wine and a corkscrew. I applaud his resourcefulness. I scope out a spare room while he’s gone. I’m sure Madge won’t mind if I actually stay over. I’ve slept in this room hundreds of times before, or at least I was supposed to. 

I find a pack of uno cards in a nightstand and Peeta finds a cardigan in one of the drawers and offers it to me. He holds it by the shoulders to let me slip into it. His fingers graze the bare skin on my neck where my braid has been pulled tightly away from and I feel a little shiver but it’s probably the beer, or because I’m freezing and actually shivering all over. But that doesn’t really explain why we both pause in that moment. I am the one to break it and I pull the cardigan around me. It’s a little big, but it’s soft, very soft. I wonder for a moment if it might be cashmere. I would not put it past Madge’s mother just to have spare cashmere cardigans hiding around her home. 

We settle on the floor with the wine and the uno cards. We soon realise that Peeta neglected to bring drinking receptacles, so we use the discarded beer bottles. If truth be told I didn’t really have much of a palette for red wine but Peeta drank it with a practised ease and it improved in taste for me the more I drank. 

Peeta it turns out is pretty useless at uno and keeps trying to make me pick up cards for no good reason. We try to play pairs with the deck but that gets too confusing for my wine addled brain and soon we’re leaning against the foot of the bed talking. 

He tells me about the wrestling team and how he feels like he doesn’t have much choice but to be a member as both his brothers actually went to college on wrestling scholarships. I tell him how my sister is the complete opposite of me. There’s no danger of her ever being in any of the same activities I’m in. 

I become aware that we’ve drifted together. His shoulder is leaning against mine and our elbows are bumping. A comfortable silence has fallen, and it is definitely partly because the wine is making me sleepy.

“Peeta?”

“Hmm?” 

“Why did you come after me earlier?”

He groans a little, as if to himself. “Oh Katniss,” he sighs. “I wish it was chivalry. That guy… Gale… what an idiot. I’m just sorry he did that to you Katniss. You deserve so much better.” He echoes his words from earlier and because I’m not crying anymore they don’t make sense. Sure Gale had taken my heart and trodden on it in front of most of my friends, but why would Peeta, a near stranger be so sure that I deserve better. 

“But it wasn’t chivalry Katniss,” he continues. “Well, I mean I wanted to check you were ok but…” he stops and sits a little straighter against the foot of the bed. His shoulder leaves mine, but our elbows still graze. “But I really like you Katniss.” 

He looks over at me. The smile that was present the whole evening is gone now and I miss it. “Oh man, I’m sorry Katniss. I wasn’t trying to win you over or anything right after you guys broke up. I just didn’t want you to cry alone upstairs.” His hand slides to my thigh and gives it a squeeze. “I promise my intentions were honourable to begin with.”

“To begin with?” I challenge. 

“Well, for tonight at least. Would like to hang out some other time?”

“Honourable intentions, and yet you’re asking me out?” I chuckle. 

“I’m trying Katniss,” he groans. “You don’t know the effect you have on people.” 

“And what’s that?” I ask laying down the gauntlet as I turn my torso towards him my face dangerously close to his. 

His eyelids flutter closed as if he’s trying desperately to resist something but when they don’t open I take the plunge and lean in to his wine stained lips. He moans and his brow knits as my lips brush his. 

“Katniss,” he flicks his eyes open and a retreat a fraction of an inch. “I- I promise I wasn’t trying…” he gulps. “I respect you too much to…” 

“it’s ok Peeta, it’s my choice too,” I say before taking his lips again and his time he kisses me back. My hand lands on his shoulder and his snake around my back. He’s a good kisser I note mentally as he deepens the kiss. Not too sloppy for a sophomore. 

His hand begins to trace circles on my back and arch a little more into the kiss. Damn this boy. The hand on my thigh is still there and I can feel it sliding up to rest on my waist. I swing a leg over his hip to straddle him and hope it’s not too forward. 

His hand continues its journey from my waist and slips under Madge’s mother’s cardigan. My heart speeds up and I deepen the kiss no longer concerned about being a good kisser and only intent on getting to know every inch of this boy who found me crying alone on the balcony, cheered me up, brought me booze, and wrapped me in a cashmere cardigan.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you liked it! Let me know! Also, if anyone is interested in beta reading my stuff please let me know, I'd like to get a bit better.


End file.
